Al Gore on Labor & Farming

$2.3B in tax credits for worker training

Gore’s new investments [in training] will cost $2.3 billion over ten years and include expanded training for transitioning workers and support for appropriate training:

Support for training to meet the needs of local communities: Gore is
today proposing to offer competitive grants to communities that develop a plan to partner with local workforce boards, industry, and labor groups.

Expanded training for dislocated workers:Gore is today proposing to provide matching challenge
grants to states that provide a training allowance to all unemployed workers in approved training programs so they complete their training.

Employer tax credits for technology training:To make it easier for workers to succeed in the new
economy, Gore’s plan would offer employers up to a $6,000 tax credit per employee for worker training in information technology and other technology skills.

Al Gore on Farm Policy

Farmers are the first environmentalists

Farmers are the first environmentalists. And when they decide not to plow a field that is vulnerable to soil erosion, that may cost them a little money, but it helps the environment. We ought to have an expanded conservation reserve program.
The environmental benefits that come from sound management of the land ought to represent a new way for farmers to get some income that will enable them to make sensible choices in crop rotation and when you leave the land fallow and the rest.

Source: St. Louis debate
Oct 17, 2000

Safety net for farmers & focused rural development

Q: Family farms are disappearing and having a hard time. Your plan?

GORE: We’ve got a bumper crop this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the prices are low. The so-called Freedom to Farm Law has been mostly a failure. I want to
change many of its provisions. Farmers have been having a hard time, and I want to fight for you. I want to restore a meaningful safety net. I’ll go beyond that and say I think we need much more focused rural economic development programs.

Source: St. Louis debate
Oct 17, 2000

Kill Freedom to Farm Act: keep price supports

Q: The Freedom to Farm Act cut price supports to farmers while giving them more freedom to plant what they want. Do you support this law?

A: I believe we must maintain America’s food security and protect our vital agricultural lands. As president, I
will work to maintain flexibility and freedom in what farmers choose to plant while providing our independent family farmers the support they need during hard times. The fact that prices and farm income have remained so low for so long, and that billions
of dollars in emergency farm aid was needed over the past two years, shows that the ‘Freedom to Farm’ Act is misguided and wholly inadequate in a climate of declining crop prices and turmoil in overseas markets. I believe that we must restore the farm
income safety net for family farmers with a system that increases support when crop prices or yields fall unexpectedly. That doesn’t mean going back to an outdated system where government tells farmers what crops to produce.

Source: Associated Press
Sep 20, 2000

Preserve free-flows, pristine peaks, & salmon fisheries

“We act today so that, years from now, Americans will still be able to paddle free-flowing waters and hike pristine peaks, enjoying these extraordinary stretches of our natural heritage.. Mine will be an inclusive approach based on solid science,” Gore
said. “The federal government alone can never restore the salmon here, it will take the cooperation of the states, local governments, tribes, private landowners and all who are affected by this issue,” Gore continued. “Extinction is not an option, and
massive economic dislocation is not an option“ Gore pledged. ”I’ll make sure that as we restore the salmon, we do it in a way that is fair to the region’s industries, farmers and working families.“

Source: CNN.com
Jun 9, 2000

No timber sales in national forest roadless areas. Period.

Gore pledged today to prohibit logging and road-building on 43 million acres of undeveloped national forests. Gore’s promise goes beyond a proposal the Clinton administration made just three weeks ago that would bar road-building across that same broad
swath of roadless land in 155 national forests and grasslands. That land accounts for about a quarter of the entire forest system and includes many of its most pristine areas.

Many environmental groups said Clinton’s proposal did not go far enough
because it would not prevent logging, and exempted the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the nation’s largest. Today, Gore addressed both those complaints, saying he would bar logging as well as road-building in the roadless areas, and would extend the
same protections to the Tongass. [Gore said he would] “preserve these roadless areas as they are, no ifs, ands or buts about it. No more destructive development. No new road-building and no timber sales in the roadless areas. Period.”

Source: James Dao, New York Times, p. A1
May 31, 2000

Base farm policy, like hormones in livestock, on science

Q: How would you ensure access to foreign markets for farm products? A: We can’t let Europe & Japan determine our farm policy. The decisions on hormones in livestock ought to be based on sound science. Not science controlled by people working for the
companies that profit from these new technologies, but neutral, dispassionate experts who will give us the best & most accurate conclusions about their safety. If they’re safe, if they enhance productivity at no risk, then we ought to be able to use them

Source: Democrat Debate in Johnston Iowa
Jan 8, 2000

Limit logging in National Forests but protect way of life

Q. Do you agree with Clinton’s order unilaterally limiting logging in national forests? A: The proposal was a preliminary statement of intention to protect this land and then have a process of consultation with the communities.
[For the White Mountains in NH], individuals and communities [will have] input into the process. I believe very strongly in protecting the environment. And I know we can do it in a way that protects our way of life and standard of living.

Source: Democratic Debate in Durham, NH
Jan 5, 2000

Supports ethanol subsidies & “farm safety net”

Vice President Al Gore maintains that “it’s well known that I’ve always supported ethanol. I have a consistent record of shoring up the farm safety net.” Gore, who as vice president cast a tie-breaking vote in 1994 against a proposal
Senator Bill Bradley sponsored to cut tax incentives for ethanol fuel, adds that “I have not ducked when votes for ... agricultural interests were on the floor.”

Triple use of biomass, ethanol, plant-based textiles, etc.

“Our administration’s goal is to triple the use of biomass technologies, ethanol, gasoline additives, plant-based textiles and other environmentally friendly products by 2010.
This is just one of the exciting ways our efforts to protect the environment will begin to help America’s ailing farming economy.”

Al Gore on Labor

Reduce poverty to 10% via welfare reform & minimum wage

In the last eight years, poverty has fallen to its lowest level in a generation - in large measure because of our strong economy. But we can do better: we should all fight to reduce child poverty.
And I am committed to taking concrete steps to see to it that fewer than one in ten Americans - children and adults -- will live in poverty by the end of the next Presidential term.

Let’s raise the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit, so that work always pays more than welfare.

Let’s move more and more families from welfare to work.

Let’s help
more working parents pay for child care - which can make all the difference in getting and keeping a full-time job.

Support equal pay for equal work

For too long, men and women have seen vast disparity in their earnings. The typical woman still earns only 73% of what the typical man earns. It is time to close that gap. This gap reflects not just discrimination, but also that fewer women go into
the highest paying occupations. Nation must tackle both problems.

Fight for paycheck fairness and help employers comply with equal pay requirements

Promises labor prosperity, repeal of striker replacement law

Speaking to the AFL-CIO, Gore never mentioned his support for free trade. Rather, the Democratic presidential aspirant capped a list of legislation he supported along with unions by declaring, “It’s time to repeal the permanent striker replacement laws
in this country.” Gore then turned his attention to Bush. “I want to keep the progress and prosperity going and make sure nobody is left behind ... not make a right-wing U-turn and go back to the old ways that failed so miserably before,” he said.

Source: Matt Smith and AP story on CNN.com
Jul 21, 2000

To union: we disagree on China; but agree elsewhere

Gore made his case yesterday for the China trade bill to union workers.... Gore faced the difference of opinion head on, if not too enthusiastically. Reading from his text in even tones to a silent audience, Gore
said, “I respect the depth and strength of your feeling, but I’m also proud that on other great issues, you and I stand together - virtually on all of the other ones.” He spoke about his support for increasing
the minimum wage, expanding Medicare to cover prescription drugs and banning permanent striker replacements.

The AFL-CIO has made defeat of the China trade bill its top legislative priority for the
year. Labor argues that free trade costs American jobs and does nothing to ensure labor rights overseas.

Source: (X-ref China) Sandra Sobieraj, Associated Press
May 22, 2000

Supports Coal Miner and Widows Health Protection Act

Al Gore today announced his strong support of the Coal Miner and Widows Health Protection Act. The bill will ensure that retired coal miners and their families maintain the health benefits they have been promised. “I will fight to fulfill the promise
of lifetime health benefits to coal miners and their families,” Gore said. “Passage of the [this] bill will ensure that thousands of families throughout America’s coal field communities will never have to go without critically needed health care
benefits.“

Earlier this year, [Gore proposed] securing the long-term solvency of the United Mine Workers Combined Benefit Fund, which was created by Congress in 1992 to provide for the continuation of health benefits for retired coal miners
and their families. ”In 1992, Congress reaffirmed a promise that was first made more than a half century ago by the coal industry and the federal government,“ Gore said. ”I intend to work with the Congress to make sure that this promise is kept.“

Source: Press Release in Nashville TN
May 10, 2000

Add $1 to minimum wage; add earned-income credits

Gore has called for a $1 hike in the minimum wage, an increase in the earned-income tax credit for married couples, and government funding for universal preschool -- which could ease the day care crunch for working parents.

Source: Ronald Brownstein, Boston Globe, p. A23
Aug 18, 1999

Injuries can be reduced by workers self-identifying hazards.

Al Gore believes in common-sense deregulation - [recognizing] that most businesses and communities will do the right thing if they can figure out what they’re supposed to do. For example, under REGO, the 200 companies in Maine with the highest on-the-job
injury levels [were] made an offer: self-identify and fix hazards, and we’ll stop writing tickets and start helping you comply. As a result, 14 times more hazards were identified and fixed, and worker injury rates were cut almost in half.